Saturday, July 14, 2012

I started doing what I call Sing, Sing a Song Saturday. I'm
going to post one song on Saturdays that the boys or I like.

The song may be part of a movie, a kid's video or just a song we like.
It may or may not include words. I'll try and include why we like it
and/or the history of the song/singer.

The first type of music Mica got into was rockabilly. He used to listen to it at my parents house on the music station that they could put in. That boy would stand at the TV set and bob up and down the moment the music came on.

I wish this hillbilly rockabilly music would come back in style; in a big way!

We were in Wyoming, heading to Thermopolis. The only thing that would come on the radio was rockabilly. We listened to it for 4 hours. Daddy and I both loved it.

There is a band called Sleepy Man Banjo Boys; they really know how to play! These boys are from New Jersey. Not exactly known for being a hillbilly place. It proves that rockabilly doesn't have to be for people raised in the sticks. It's for anyone!

Nine
year-old banjo picker Jonny Mizzone (9) along with his brothers Robbie (13)
on fiddle, and Tommy (14) on guitar, are The Sleepy Man Banjo Boys.
Though their combined age is younger than music’s Hip-Hop era, it’s the
1950’s music of Flatt & Scruggs & The Stanley Brothers that
inspires them. The Sleepy Man Banjo Boys are the result of
brotherly-love.

They got their name from the youngest having to lay in bed to play the banjo. It was a bit to big for him.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Tonight Show with Jay
Leno were calling, and in summer of 2011 appeared as musical guests on
The Late Show with David Letterman and NBC’s Today Show. In July, the
boys were contacted by Fox News to appear on the Mike Huckabee show, and
the overwhelming response led to an invitation to appear again the
following week – the only musical guests to appear on back-to-back
episodes in the history of the show.

Friday, July 13, 2012

This post is random, but I still have pictures from our trip. I've got to post them sometime.

We were in Chicago. We were staying with a guy named Sam. He was Daddy's roommate in college, his best man in our wedding and a friend of mine to. He's a trucker and has crazy hours 2-2. Most of our trip we didn't get to see Sam. One of our last days in Chicago Sam was off of work and got to go site seeing with us. I let him pick where he wanted to go. He wanted to see the Science and Industry Museum. Our whole way there the boys kept saying, "SAM, SAM, SAM!" until he'd answer them. They also fought over who was going to sit with him on the bus and subway. They were very happy to have Sam with us that day!

Somehow on our venture we ended up in a not so hot part of Chicago. Sam was freaking out a little. He never takes the bus or subway anywhere. The boys weren't freaking out! They were as happy as can be! We had to wait and wait on a bus to come and get us. The building we stood at had chipped paint, but it said it was a monument. A very unkept monument! Graffiti and trash were all over.

Look at how happy the boys are! :) I wish they were this way all the time!

Here are the boys with "SAM, SAM, SAM!"

Here we are as a family.

Daddy thought this was a cool shot. We're artists, what can I say?!

This sign cracked me up! I didn't know if I was looking at a sign that was racist or if it really was just odd! My guess, just odd. The whole area was odd.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

I knew as soon as I saw the t shirts on Warrior Poet Clothier that Mica had to have one. They just fit his personality so much! He's the adventurer, creative thinker, and a free spirit in our house. Warrior Poet Clothier fits all those categories.

On different days Mica can be seen dressed up like Indiana Jones, a Native American, a super hero or often times puts on a tie for no apparent reason.

We were given the t-shirt Live Like Heroes to review. They described the shirt on their website like this, "This shirt is cloaked in Valor and the battle-tested shield tells stories of legends passed down through the ages." It's perfect!

Warrior Poet Clothier has awesome shirts for boys! Everyone I know that has boys say they are hard to shop for! There's just not a lot of stores out there that have adventurous shirts. If a boy is into sports, they are set. Some are not. Part of Warrior Poet Clothier's mission is to be, "Balanced, stronger than most, more thoughtful than most–part of the leadership class who guides with wisdom and courage." - Gotten off Warrior Poet Clothier's site. When I find a place that has great boy clothing I brag about it.

My nephew that usually refuses to take pictures, tried on Mica's new shirt. He liked it. He was pretty happy to be wearing it.

The back has a shield and the front has continued straps that mimic holding up the shield and it says,

"What if we all lived like heroes?"

Here are some of the garment attributes:

I've washed the shirt twice. It washes to fit the size it says it is. The color stayed just as vibrant as when it first came to us. Now it's time for the giveaway! One winner will have the chance to choose their own shirt from Warrior Poet Clothier if the size is available. If they are out of stock in a size you need; they will choose a shirt for you. You will not be unhappy. All their shirts rock!

A $28 value. This entry is for US residents only.a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclaimer: The opinions on the post are my personal take on the
product. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not
compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products
themselves to test out. Warrior Poet Clothier provided to me a free
product to help with this review/giveaway.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Sure I watch Star Wars when I was a kid. Mica and Isaak haven't gotten into it. We tried. They lost interest fast.

Mica had a play date last night. His friend brought over Star Wars characters. He knew all their names. Mica played with them. He seems to show more interest in the toys than he did the movies.
I was listening to Mica play with his friend's Star Wars characters and this is what I heard:

Monday, July 9, 2012

I met my first internet friend in person. Guess what? I didn't get any pictures of us together. Oh well. My mind was on making sure everyone had what they needed. It was hot out.

I asked if Aunt Terra would want to come over as well? She did. Sara, my internet friend has 3 boys. I decided it would be great to set up the Slip n' Slide for all the boys to burn off some energy! I think I need one with 2 lanes. Terra's boys love our Slip n' Slide because we have a big back yard (for a city) with lots of hills! It's a pain to mow, but great for sledding, Slip n' Sliding, running and playing! I also wanted Sara to see Emerson. She's heard me talk about him. It was great because Sara and Brett (Sara's husband) had someone to talk to, while I got homemade pudding pops for the boys, drinks and chips. Daddy was working. :( I think he would have liked Brett.

Here's all the boys playing! They had fun!

Did you happen to see my two boys in the picture above? It's like Where's Waldo. They are on the left. Mica and Isaak keep battling each other. It starts out fun. Then someone ends up fussing because the other hurt them. Isaak usually starts it. Mica usually finishes it. According to Mica it's Isaak's fault, he was just defending himself. According to Isaak it's Mica's fault for hurting him in the end. I told them no more kung fu, or Karate movies for awhile! Uggg! They enjoy Kung fu Panda and the Karate Kid movies. I like them to! Mica's birthday party is going to be based off of Kung fu Panda. If they can't stop fighting, then they can't watch them.

My boys play hard! Guess what they sleep hard to! I can get Mica who is almost 7 to take a nap! Isaak who is 4 takes a nap most of the time. I don't know if that's good with the combo of school, but they play hard; and get naughty if they don't sleep well. They took a 3 hour nap after everyone left! They would have slept longer if I didn't wake them up!

I was super impressed with the tees! The material is soft and doesn't shrink. It's so cool you can pick the color of the tee. I wrote Sara and thanked her. She wrote back and told me that no one has ever thanked her for their winnings, also that Brett (her husband) is from Omaha and he has a sister named Alissa. Small world. She told me that when I started doing giveaways she would be happy to giveaway a Snugfits shirt on my site. The giveaway was a while ago.

We kept chatting back and forth. Her son's are into surfing, how cool is that? There's a non-profit org that's called Surfers Healing - A Foundation for Autism. Her oldest has Autism. I would have never known if she didn't tell me.

So we used to email back and forth. We're friends on Facebook as well. Brett says I'm the only one that makes comments on their blog.

I was so happy to have them over! They seem like really great people. It wasn't awkward in least bit seeing them. It seemed like I knew them already.

This weekend we went to a park to celebrate my birthday and Fathers Day. My birthday was on June 21st. Emerson's first birthday was that weekend. Then the next weekend we had a family get together at Great Aunt Marsha's house because my cousin was in town with their new baby. This weekend was the only weekend we could all swing getting together.

It was my idea to have a picnic. I thought it would work because the boys could play and run all they wanted to, no one would have to clean house and Grandpa Spiehs (for Father's Day) loves the outdoors.

The problem was is that it's been super hot out. Grandma Spiehs hates the heat and she was worried about the heat not being good for Emerson. This weekend we had a slight cool down. It was perfect!

I got a coffee grinder. I'm going to use it for grinding whole flaxseed as well. I walk during my lunch hour, so I've been wanting a pedometer. They got me one! I also got these cool decorating tools that almost look like dental tools. This should be fun to use around Christmas time and birthdays!

I was mostly focused on taking pictures for a review/giveaway coming up. Here are a couple shots:

Cousin Emerson smiling at his Daddy.

The boys on a walk with Grandpa Spiehs.

There were two highlights of the event.

1. Mica explaining to me what Japanese Beatles are. *NOTE: He calls them creatures from China. He's been hanging out with Grandpa Spiehs too much. LOL You've got to watch the video because it's hilarious!

2. The next highlight was when cousin Elijah (age 4) pulled down his pants to pee in the middle of a sort of populated play area. Kids! LOL

Sunday, July 8, 2012

I know I didn't even post a Sing, Sing a Song Saturday post yesterday. I still want to keep that going.

This weekend was crazy busy. I'll post about each thing we did with photos.

Here's a quick recap:

We refinanced our house. Now we have lots of work to do before they inspect us. We have to put a railing in on some steps we have, we have to scrap and paint some of our house and we have to replace a door that goes from our basement to our garage. We both feel overwhelmed! We've never refinanced, so we didn't know all this had to be done! YIKES!

We finally celebrated my birthday that was June 21 and Grandpa Spiehs' Fathers Day. It was nice we went to a park. That's something new for us.

I had my first online friend over. I never met her in person. She assisted me with one of my very first giveaways. Check out Snugfits. We email back and forth and talk on Facebook. Her family (3 boys) came to my house along with Aunt Terra and her (3 boys) to have fun on our slip n' slide. It was a great time!

Today I ran errands all morning.

I've been cleaning, spackling, digging up weeds and doing laundry all weekend!

Isaak has to of course be going through a stage of night time accidents. He'll go through a month of time being dry and then it's wet, wet, wet! I take him potty before bed. It doesn't seem to matter, he's still soaked when he wakes up! Uggg!

Daddy's been swamped at work! He's always swamped when we don't want him to be!

Blogger was acting odd yesterday for me. I went to upload a video for Sing, Sing a Song Saturday and my site along with others were just spinning. That's the main reason why I didn't get up a song.

Disclaimer

The opinions on this blog are my personal take on products and topics relating to motherhood. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

I am not compensated to provide opinions on a variety of topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own. If I claim to show knowledge of certain topic or product I will only endorse products or services that I feel, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement.

If you have any questions about this blog, or want to get in contact with me please email me at: anapeladay@gmail.com